


Hot Chocolate on Fire Escapes

by PeachyKeener



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Comfort, Engagement, F/M, Fluff, Harley Keener Needs a Hug, Harley gets a hug, In-Laws, Late Night Conversations, Late night talks, Like, M/M, No Angst, Not really hurt but YES comfort, Supportive May Parker (Spider-Man), Well - Freeform, future questions, just fluff, kinda angst, man i really love May Parker being just a mom, shes just a mom yall, wonderful in laws
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:34:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29075661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeachyKeener/pseuds/PeachyKeener
Summary: A gentle hand reached out to clasp his shoulder, and he removed his head from his hands to look up at May, who was holding a steaming cup of hot chocolate. “You know when Peter was younger he’d come to the fire escape to think too."(Aka, May is the best in-law of all time and Harley's worried about things he already knows)
Relationships: Ben Parker/May Parker, Harley Keener & May Parker (Spider-Man), Harley Keener/Peter Parker, May Parker & Peter Parker
Comments: 9
Kudos: 148





	Hot Chocolate on Fire Escapes

**Author's Note:**

> just a soft and sweet little drabble of May and harley bonding,,, thank you to Ava for beta reading for me on short notice!! 
> 
> also me posting a fic when i just got into my states top college?? more likely thank you think.

The ring box that Peter had hidden in their underwear drawer burned a hole into the back of Harley’s mind. 

He hadn’t actually realized what it was when he opened it and saw the soft silver ring that laid pressed into the box. There had been diamonds pressed into the metal- nothing jagged or protruding from it because Peter knew him well enough to know that he would want something easy to touch and fiddle with and not anything that could get caught on projects or clothes- and an inscription on the inside.  _ My love.  _ Cause that was Peter’s second favorite nickname for him after the ever-teasing ‘princess’ that only ever came into use when the mask of the Spider-Suit was on. 

Why hadn’t Peter put the rings somewhere else? His idiot boyfriend put them in  _ their  _ shared drawer instead of somewhere a little less likely for Harley to find. If Peter had put them somewhere else and he never saw the ring until the moment his boyfriend proposed- maybe- maybe he wouldn’t be feeling so… so… he didn’t know how he felt. 

Happy? Sad? Upset? Scared? 

They were both just so  _ young.  _ They were  _ young.  _ Peter had only just graduated college and Harley had one more year to go. They weren’t even in society yet and Peter wanted them to- too- get married? And yes, he wanted to marry Peter one day but… was one day coming sooner than he’d expected?    
  
Pressing his palms to his eyes, he breathed in and out and in and out and wished- not for the first time since she’d passed- that he could talk to his mom. He wanted his mom. His mom would be able to help him figure out the tangled mess of emotions that were stuck in his throat at the knowledge that Peter wanted to propose. 

Did it make him terrible that he wasn’t sure he wanted Peter to propose? Did it make him bad that even with all this fear he was happy that Peter wanted to marry him? Did it make him an idiot that he didn’t know if he wanted to say yes or no? 

A gentle hand reached out to clasp his shoulder, and he removed his head from his hands to look up at May, who was holding a steaming cup of hot chocolate. “You know when Peter was younger he’d come to the fire escape to think too.” 

“Nice to know.” Accepting the hot chocolate with trembling hands, the warmth of the cup helped against his numb fingers. “But wasn’t he the same kid that used to get into fights?”    
  
“Mhmm,” May hummed, looking across the skyline. “You would’ve loved it. He was so tiny, but he didn’t like mean people and he didn’t like anyone who said mean things to anyone. So despite asthma and the tiny size of his fist, he’d try to fight anyone who was mean. He got that from Ben.”    
  
Harley took a sip, blinking at the taste. “You put in peppermint?”    
  
“Peter talks about how you like things.”    
  
Fondness bloomed in his chest, a warmth that had nothing to do with the hot chocolate spread through his veins. Of course, Peter talked about how he liked his hot chocolate with peppermint in it, because even though he always complained about peppermint himself, he knew Harley. And he wanted to share that with the other people he loved. 

The rings ran through his mind again. 

“He got a lot of things from Ben,” May spoke after a few minutes of silence. “Sometimes I look at him- and it’s strange. Cause he’s the spitting image of Richie and Richie was the spitting image of Ben. Perks of being twins, I guess. But I look at Peter and I see how much Ben he has in him and it makes me feel happy. He and I made the right choices, raising him up like we did.”    
  
“You’ll hear no complaints from me about how he was raised.” The words were soft. “You raised- I love him. You raised the boy I love.”    
  
“He loves you too.”    
  
“I know that.” Hesitating, he placed the hot chocolate down next to himself, turning to her. “Can I ask your advice on something?” 

May had a soft smile on her face. “Shoot, kid. But I already know what it’s about.”    
  
“You know- the rings.”    
  
“I took him shopping for them.” Her voice was gentle and comforting, and he was reminded of his mom for a second. He should visit her grave this week. “He was bouncing off the walls- he had an idea in his head but didn’t know what the details he needed were. When he found that ring… well… you know Peter. He was happy enough to burst.”    
  
“Oh.”    
  
“He really does love you, Harley.”    
  
“I know he does,” The words were quick- sharper than he intended them to be. “I know he loves me. And I know I love him. But May- that’s  _ all  _ I know. I know we love each other and I know that marriage is this entirely new ballpark.”

The words felt slightly wrong to say. Marriage  _ was  _ an entirely new ballpark, and the only thing he really  _ was  _ sure of was the fact that they loved each other. But somehow phrasing it like that… it wasn’t like he didn’t want to marry Peter. He needed May to understand that just because he was scared right now didn’t mean that he didn’t want to marry peter. The boy was the love of his life and he wasn’t sure he’d ever love anyone else the way he loved Peter- unless they adopted and then he’d love their children more than anything else in the world but the fact that they hadn’t even started talking about adoption or life of marriage or- 

“Breathe, Harley.” May pressed a hand to his shoulder again, looking at him with worried eyes. “Breathe. It’s gonna be okay. You know why?”   
  
His breath felt stuck in his throat, but he forced it out, “Why?” 

“Because you love Peter and Peter loves you. There’s not much more to it.” 

“Isn’t there?”    
  
She looked at him, and for all that May talked about Peter being like Ben and his parents, she really missed just how many of Peter’s mannerisms were purely her. Looking at him with eyes that were calculating and caring- it was all Peter. Figuring him out like a puzzle- that was them. That was May and Peter. 

Gently pulling away, she hummed softly. “You know, Ben and I got married the day after Richie and Mary passed.”    
  
“What?” His brow furrowed hard. “But you- the wedding picture’s- Peter’s at least seven in those.”

“Well, that was the ceremony we had.” She nodded. “But that wasn’t the day we got married. Well- even that’s not fully right. That was the day we got married within the Jewish faith- because his heritage was always important to Ben, and I knew our tiny courthouse wedding never really sat right with him when he wanted a big wedding with a chuppah and all that jazz- but it wasn’t the day we got married.”    
  
“Why…what?”    
  
“Peter needed two parents,” May looked older for a second. “We couldn’t break the news to him just yet, we needed- we needed some way for him to know that he was gonna be alright even though Richard and Mary-”    
  
She swallowed and looked away. Harley had never really heard her call Peter’s dad Richard before. 

“Well, we just knew he needed us to be united.” Looking back at him, May offered a weak smile, “But honestly? I was fucking terrified.” 

“You were?”    
  
“Yeah. I was- I was so scared.”

“But- why?”    
  
May paused. “Same reasons you are. Me and Ben- we’d been together for years, but marriage is hard. Especially when you’ve just lost two of the best people in the world, and suddenly gotta take care of your nephew. It was- I would do it all over again. But I was terrified.” 

“Oh,” Harley nodded. “I suppose that was a stupid question cause of- cause of everything going on.”    
  
“It was more than just their passing and us adopting Peter.” She looked down at her fingers and Harley didn’t need to trace her eyesight to see she was looking at the wedding ring she still wore. “It was… I didn’t think we were ready. We were getting married for the greater good of it all, but I didn’t think we were ready for that. Shared finances, shared lives, shared everything. I loved Ben with all my heart- and he’d loved me since we were thirteen. But some things are just  _ scary.  _ And you don’t feel ready. Plus I had lost my mom two years earlier, so I didn’t have anyone to ask for advice on married life and love and- it was a lot.”    
  
A lump formed in his throat, but he gave her a wet smile. “That’s the difference between our stories. My mom- she uh- she’s gone, yeah, but um. You’re here. And I think she’d be really happy that I have someone here.”   
  
“Oh kiddo-” May pulled him into a tight hug. “And I’m always gonna be here.”    
  
“I know. Especially if me and Peter-”    
  
“Get married?”    
  
“Yeah.” Pulling away, he squeezed her hand and took a sip of the hot chocolate she’d given him. “But you and Ben’s marriage was…”   
  
“Almost perfect.” She shook her head. “That was a joke. It was rocky and rough and sometimes we fought till we couldn’t breathe- never in front of Peter, but we did- but at the end of the day… loving each other won over everything else in the world. I loved Ben. Ben loved me. We could face anything if we just had each other.” 

The pressure that had burrowed itself between his shoulder blades since he had found the ring eased up- not fully, but enough that he could see a little more clear now. He loved Peter and Peter loved him. What else more was there to it?  
  
May smiled at him, shifting to stand and offering a hand to him, “Now come on. Fire escapes are cold on nights like tonight and I get the feeling you’ve got a boyfriend to be with.”   
  
“He’s not even back from patrol,” Harley protested weakly, taking her hand and letting the older woman pull him up. “But um- seriously May. Thank you. This- really helped.”   
  
“So you’ve got your answer then?”  
  
He nodded, pulling her into another hug. “Like you said. I love him, and he loves me. There’s not much more to it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think or hit me up at Peachy-Keener on tumblr!


End file.
